MISSIONARY MEETING AT TE AWAMUTU.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 27, 18 July 1911, Page 2

MISSIONARY MEETING AT TE AWAMUTU.

On Friday evening last Mr and Mrs Bailey, of the Poona and Indian Village Mission, gave some very • interesting information concerning their work in that important part of the British Empire. Mr and Mrs Bailey were attired in the ordinary costume of the Hindus, and some pieces in the Marathi language, which is spoken in western India. One of the pieces described the many things aspired to by the Hindoo, and asked the question: “What shall we do when we come to die ?” the uppermost thought in the mind of the hearer being the 8,400,000 births through which he must pass ere he could be absorbed into Brahma, the Hindu deity. Some very interesting figures were given showing the mass of people in that country. There were according to the last census 315,000,000 of people in India, an increase of 15,000 for the past decade. The number of blind people equal onethird of the population of New Zealand, the number ol lepers one-tenth, and the number of beggars five times the population of N.Z. Mr Bailey paid a tribute to the wise and beneficent rule of Great Britain in India which was marred by the iniquitous opium traffic, and the licensing of strong drink, which was encouraging the people to drink more, and from which a large revenue is drawn. Mrs Bailey spoke on the sadness of a widow’s lot in India. There were 56,000,000 widows whose lives were more or less wretched by their sad lot. There was no salvation for a woman in Hinduism, and a fallen woman was to be eaten by the dogs outside the city. Pandita Ramabai was one of India’s formost Christian women, who is a convert from Hinduism, and a widow, and who now has a large home for child widows, wives, and women, containing some 1500 inmates, who are supported by simple dependance upon God. Mr Bailey described an idolatrous procession, the idol being two silver feet, carried some 150 miles on foot to Paudharpur, a sacred city 230 miles south of Bombay. He also .described a scene in the large temple, through which 600 people were passed every hour day and night, by a force of 25 native police, to prevent loss of life in crushing. The Rev. Clarke was in the chair, and introduced the speakers in a few well-chosen remarks, The Rev. Lamond led the meeting in prayer.